A contact strip of the aforedescribed type which can be disposed between printed circuit boards in a sandwich assembly in which the contact strip is contacted on its opposite sides by respective printed circuit boards, is known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,295 which discloses contact elements which are spaced apart by a contact pitch, each of these contact elements having a portion fixed in the insulating body. The contact elements can have contact shanks which can engage the conductive tracks of the printed circuit boards. The contact shanks of each element form a U-shaped stirrup in side view while a central member is embedded in the insulating body during the injection molding process. The insulating body can be mounted in a frame-like housing. The mounting of the contact elements is complex in the fabrication of such contact strips, especially when the contact density is high, i.e. the inter-contact pitch is small, and the system is miniaturized for use in miniature circuits.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,411, by contrast, the contact strip is provided with E-shaped contact elements whose outer shanks are formed by contact shanks and whose central shank can be inserted in a slit of the insulting body for retaining the contact members thereon. Such three-shank contact members can be stamped from flat sheet metal of a contact alloy and in the flat form can be inserted in the insulating body. The shanks can then be bent around the body during the mounting of the contact strip between the printed circuit boards. This ensures high contact pressures even in the case where the contact edges themselves are relatively small. The contact elements themselves can be relatively resistant to bending, i.e. particularly stiff. With a high level of miniaturization, the shank lengths can be small and the spring displacement of the shanks can likewise be minimal, but the contact shanks themselves must be capable of generating high contact pressures. In practice, the contacts must be guided to ensure high quality electrical interconnection with reduced contact forces.